In the retail garment industry, it is typical to use forms or manikins (mannequins) to display clothes. For the retail store, it is nearly impossible to dress a form or manikin if the limbs cannot be removed.
Assembling a dressed manikin is a time-consuming task. Once the limbs are inserted into the display clothes, attaching them to the torso is complicated and requires experience. It is difficult to manipulate the limbs into position, and more so if the clothing on display has to appear tight-fitting.
There is known U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,717 issued on Mar. 17, 1998 to Patrick Vigne. Vigne discloses a structure comprising an upper leg 2 provided with a magnet assembly 20 comprising block magnet 22, and provided with a joint surface 6. A lower leg 4 has a ferromagnetic plate 14 incorporated within joint surface 8 of lower leg 4.
Magnetic assembly 20 of upper leg 2 is adapted to cooperate with ferromagnetic plate 14 when upper leg 2 and lower leg 4 engage each other and mate together when joint is assembled. The joint surface 8 of the lower leg 4 has a flat portion 10 corresponding with a generally flat portion 12 of the joint surface 6 of the upper leg 2. A ferromagnetic plate 14 is let into the portion 8, more or less flush.
The present invention comprises an attach base mounted onto the torso and provided with a plurality of North Pole magnets incorporated into magnet compartments or rooms, and provided with flux shield that regulates attachment force of the magnets. The attach plate is adapted to cooperate with the lead-in base mounted on the limb, which is provided with a plurality of South Pole magnets incorporated into magnet compartments, and provided with a flux shield that regulates the attachment force of magnets. The lead-in base contains lead-in pin and location block adapted to be accommodated within corresponding openings made in the attach base.
The two designs are completely different even though in both arrangements, both joint elements, such as upper and lower legs of Vigne, and torso and arm of the present design, use two magnets incorporated in the respective parts. Vigne uses magnets of different configuration, such as block-shaped magnet 20 and ferromagnetic plate 14, while the present design uses a plurality of magnets incorporated in magnet rooms of attach and lead-in base. Vigne also attaches portions of the manikin in a different way.
There is also known U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,794 issued on Mar. 16, 2004 to Richard Varner et al disclosing a manikin incorporating attracted material or metallic plate 12 in its body portions, adapted to cooperate with a magnetic assembly 14.
Magnetic assembly 14 consists of a pole piece 70 in the form of the cup and provided with a ring magnet 72 which are in contact with sides and bottom of said cup 70. On top of this ring magnet 72 are two neodymium magnets 74. Magnetic assembly 14 is provided with mating pin 18 adapted to mate with the corresponding mating hole 32 formed in metallic plate 12. Magnetic assembly 14 is also provided with indexing pin 16 adapted to cooperate with a plurality of indexing holes 34 formed in said metallic plate 12.
The Varner design allows removable pieces of manikin to move toward manikin at a distance from the manikin of more than ¼ of an inch before mating of magnetic assembly and attract material will engage each other, which is the gist of Varner's invention.
The present invention comprises an attach base mounted on to the torso and provided with plurality of North Pole magnets incorporated into magnet compartment or rooms, and provided with flux shielding to regulate the magnets' attachment and attraction force. The attach plate is adapted to cooperate with the lead-in base mounted on the limb, which is provided with a plurality of South Pole magnets incorporated into magnet compartments, and provided with a flux shield to regulate strength of magnets. The lead base contains lead-in pin and location block adapted to be accommodated within corresponding openings made in the attach base.
Varner's arrangement is substantially different from the present design even though the same type of magnetic material, neodymium, is used, and they have similar arrangements to connect pieces, such as indexing and mating pins of Varner and lead-in pin and location block of the present invention. Varner's design has magnets only on one mating piece, while the present invention has magnets incorporated into both mating pieces. The essence of Varner's invention is the attraction between the two mating pieces forcing them to move towards each other before final mating, while the present design has a straight-forward fixing of arms onto a torso by means of lead-in pin and location block.
If, hypothetically, Varner replaces metal (steel) plate 12 by another magnet as a “magnetically adherent material”, it will have a 50% chance to be attracted and 50% chance to be repelled for the obvious reason that magnets 72 and 74 of Varner has two opposite poles: South and North, while in the present invention it is specifically pointed out that limb side has North oriented magnets and body side has South oriented magnets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,396 issued on Mar. 20, 2001 to Christopher Asmussen et al. comprises a mannequin provided with a male portion 10 incorporated within arm and a female portion 20 incorporated within torso of mannequin. Male portion 10 has a disk-shaped configuration with a cylindrical projection 13 extending from the bottom surface of male portion 10. Lower surface 14 of projection 13 is provided with ferromagnetic material.
Female portion 20 also has a disk-shaped configuration and is provided with downwardly-extending receptacle 23 adapted to accommodate circular projection 13 of male portion 10. A magnet 24 is incorporated within bottom part of receptacle 23 and is adapted to cooperate with ferromagnetic surface 14 of male portion 10 when manikin is assembled.
Even though the present design and the Asmussen patent both comprise two magnets incorporated in mating pieces of a mannequin, the Asmussen design is completely different from the present invention. Arrangement of male portion 10 and female portion 20 are totally different from the attach base and lead-in base of the present invention. Asmussen uses a cylindrical projection 13 to mate receptacle 23, while the present design uses a lead-in pin and location block to connect arm to torso.
The present design of the magnetic arrangement is also different from Asmussen. Asmussen uses block-shaped magnet 24 to cooperate with ferromagnetic surface 14 while the present invention uses a plurality of magnets incorporated into specially designed rooms or compartments.